Improved Crafting: Herbalism

Using the Herbalism Kit to gather herbs

Crafting is an exciting addition to 5ed, or would be, if there were well defined rules that explain what your characters can do with the tools, kits, and supplies. 

Several content creators have attempted, but I have different ideas about the crafting system I envision. The cornerstone of my system is the notion that you find herbs by actively looking for them, going to the places they grow, and searching. This is different from the interpretation of the majority of content creators. I think the mechanism of rolling vs a DC and upon success geting a randomly assigned hand-out (from a small number of choices that are uniform throughout every similar terrain type in the whole wide world) is overly simplistic, unrealistic, and will soon become tiresome to most players.

This system requires a significant amount of prep work on the part of the DM. If you want a plug-and-play system that is ready to pick up and use, this is probably not the system for your table. I do however include a variety of examples and themed suggestions to get things started. I include herbal naming suggestions for different magic types, illicit substances, and uses for herbs without requiring refinement by another set of tools. 

My intention is to work my way through all the different crafting tool sets (to include a couple more than the SRD provides). After I have all the kits covered I will make prettier versions with formatting that matches the themes of the official books.

If you like this check out my other works here...

Improved Backgrounds
112 new backgrounds with an improved format, expanded versions from PHB and new backgrounds for unique characters

Improved NPC Interactions
Ideas for creating NPC prejudices and outlines (including DCs) for several different types of social interactions

Improved Commoners - Villagers
Stat blocks for NPCs found in a human village, to include tables for assigning possessions carried and in their homes

Improved Downtime - Fist Fight
A system for unarmed combat as a downtime activity and more

also...check out my brief weekly series

Improved Enemies

Week 1 - True Psionics - Quaggoth

Week 2 - true psionics - Intellect Devourer

Week 3 - true psionics - Urophion

Week 4 - true psionics - Mind Flayer

Week 5 - true psionics - Mind Flayer (Deux)